Ice Cube Attached To Star In ‘Vacation Friends’ At Fox In Casting Revamp

EXCLUSIVE:Ice Cube is now aboard to star in the comedy Vacation Friends at 20th Century Fox, a project that was formerly earmarked for Chris Pratt and Anna Faris. The comedy, still to be directed by Steve Pink, was actually bought in March of 2014 with the husband-wife team in mind in what was a six-figure deal. The producer, Todd Garner (Broken Road Pictures), is said to be close pals with Cube as they did Are We Done Yet? together and so took the project to him. No female lead has yet been set for Vacation Friends.

Written by sibling scribes Tom Mullen & Tim Mullen, the film is about a conservative (as in straight-laced) couple on vacation in Mexico who befriend another couple and have a wild time. When the vacation is over they return to their normal lives, but the vacation couple suddenly shows up, disrupting their lives. And then the wild couple … won’t … leave. It’s said to be in the vein of comedy classic What About Bob?

Cube would star as the tightly-wound lawyer who is in love with Emily, his dedicated girlfriend who seems so innocent to her parents but has a wild streak that she lets loose while on vacation in Mexico before returning home. He then tries to bring things back to normal. Pink is currently re-writing the script.

The hotter than hot Cube has had quite a year. His little film Straight Outta Compton hit it big this year with critics and with fans and just crossed the $200M mark worldwide. It’s also getting an Oscar push for Best Picture from Universal. He is producing and starring in Ride Along 2 which gets a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend release next year. He also is starring in Fist Fight and is producing and starring in Barbershop 3 coming up.

Most recently, Universal beat out three other studios for the spec Humbug which was one of the Relativity titles taken out before the company went Chapter 11. Written by scribes Todd R Jones and Earl Richey Jones, the Christmas re-telling of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol is being developed as a starring vehicle for Cube with his Barbershop and Ride Along helmer Tim Story also attached to direct. Cube, his longtime manager Jeff Kwatinetz, and Garner are producing.

Also in development at Universal is the Colorado-set comedy Rocky Mountain High which Cube will produce with Kwatinetz (they penned the five-page treatment together which started a bidding war last year). Beau Flynn also produces.

Cube is represented by UTA, Kwatinetz’s via The Firm and Ziffren Brittenham.